McNamara thrilled with England victory

England's Josh Charnley scores one of his four tries at the Racecourse Ground

England coach Steve McNamara was delighted with his side's 14-try rout of Wales in their opening autumn international.

Winger Josh Charnley, one of seven players winning their first caps, ran in four tries while stand-off Kevin Sinfield kicked 24 points on his first appearance as England captain in an 80-12 victory at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham.

"I'm very happy," McNamara said. "We were on a bit of a hiding to nothing. Wales is an extremely tough place to come. We were expected to win and win well and, if we didn't do that, there would have been some questions asked. It certainly doesn't do us any harm to put on a performance like that."

He added: "There were a whole host of different challenges - being resounding favourites was one of them - but we overcame most of them. We weren't picture perfect by any stretch and we'll look to improve next week against France."

Wales' defeat means England will take on France in the November 11 final at the City of Salford Stadium but will first meet each other at Hull KR's Craven Park next Saturday.

In addition to kicking 12 goals from 14 attempts, Sinfield was at the heart of his team's attacking display to lift the man-of-the-match award. "It was probably the proudest moment of my career," Sinfield said. "I feel very fortunate. It was great to get the result, that was most important thing. The players' willingness to rip in for each other was huge."

Charnley, whose 31 tries enabled him to finish top of the Super League list in 2012, continued his prolific form with Wigan to justify his Test selection ahead of Hull's Tom Briscoe.

"There is not a lot to choose between all three blokes," McNamara said. "It's virtually a toss of a coin to decide who plays those positions. Josh has been in tremendous form for his club and he got the nod this time around."

Wales scored tries either side of half-time through Christiaan Roets and Dan Fleming to avoid a whitewash and a repeat of their record 74-0 defeat by England in Bridgend in 2009. But the manner of their sixth consecutive defeat leaves head coach Iestyn Harris with still much to do if his team are to be competitive in the 2013 World Cup.

"I'm bitterly disappointed," Harris said. "I thought we lacked physicality against them from the start. They always looked stronger than us. I thought we looked dangerous at times with ball in hand but there was a lack of physicality for us. It's an issue for us and an area we need to improve in. Also our kicking game was abysmal and that comes down to having experience in the right positions."